Clara was wasting the day away trying to entertain herself until it was dark enough to safely go outside. Hopefully she wouldn't have to live like this too much longer, Damon told her a witch he knew, Bonnie Bennet, had returned to town and should would be able to help.

Clara POV:

I hate being stuck inside all day, its not that my accommodations aren't grand, its beautiful here and I live better than I ever have before. I just hate that while those I care for are out and about trying to sort through the trouble that life brings them I am stuck inside unable to help. I feel like I am watching everyone else live and I am innside studying and trying to catch up to them and sometimes it feels like I never will.

Damon had stopped by briefly, he had a bad meeting with the council, apparently they want him to team up with John to hunt vampires.

Then Stefan came by and had a fight with anyone who suggested he had a blood problem, apparently a local hospital was robbed and Stefan was the culprit.

Then Anna came by, Pearl's daughter, and gave us more troubling news about the tomb vampires.

Everything was spinning out of control so fast and I was terrified one of them would need my help and I would be stuck inside while they suffered tragedies.

My husbands new vampire hunter partner even stopped by, he made my skin crawl. He made a loose threat to me and Damon actually ripped his finger clean off. John cried and screamed out in pain clasping his bleeding hand to his chest.

"You know there are thousands of ways I can hurt you without killing you, this was just the first to come to mind. I'll be holding on to this from now on, you want it back, feel free to leave a forwarding address on your way out of town, I'll be sure to mail it! And NEVER make the mistake of thinking I would allow you to so much as breathe near my wife let alone do anything to harm her. Understood?" my husband told him menacingly

John nodded

"Great now, hold still." Damon tossed me the bloodied ring and held John's finger where it used to be and bit into his wrist shoving it into John's mouth allowing him to heal. "You might want to be careful for the next 24 hours, or the next vampire you'll be hunting will be you." Damon warned.

Later Damon called me to let me know he would be attending the Miss Mystic Falls pageant to keep an eye on Stefan, make sure he didn't eat any of the contestants.

The next call I got was very concerning, Stefan actually had attacked a girl, and he had run off when they tried to get him under control again. Damon instructed me what to do if I saw Stefan before they made it back to the boarding house.

I heard the door open and Stefan run up to his room. This was my chance to help... even if it felt deceitful I was happy Damon trusted me enough to do this.

I entered his bedroom after him and sat with him on his bed.

"Hear I missed another fabulous Mystic Falls event." I told him,

"I Am not really in the mood for company right now." He said trying to get rid of me,

"Well, good thing I am not company, I live here. I'm your sister, come on you can talk to me. Or do you only open up when we are both strung up with vervain ropes?" I said not going away so easily,

"Maybe that's what you should do, tie me up. I was going to do it to Damon once, let him dry out and then put him in the family crypt for 50 or so years. The world would be a lot safer if that's where I was, Elena would be safer." He said,

"Take it from someone who was desiccating in a tomb for well over 100 years, that's not the answer." I tried telling him,

"You didn't deserve that."

"And you do?" I asked him

"Yes!" He proclaimed loudly, that's it I was getting tired of his attitude,

"and who will that help? It's cowardly." I told him getting frustrated,

"what?" He asked confused by my outburst,

"you want to punish yourself, you think that will make it up to your victims? It's not going to unkill them somehow. It only helps you feel better like the deluded Saint Anthony who thought the way to salvation was to starve himself to madness in the middle of the desert. Your suffering will not make up for your sins, you want to make a difference? Make restitution where you can? You need to stay alive and fight! Go to Africa save girls that wouldn't otherwise be saved, or go to the Middle East and stop a stoning or save children from being bombed, hell stalk college campuses right here and save young women from being raped do something with your life to save more lives then you took! That's how you make it up to your victims not by being a melodramatic eternal teenager brooding in his room!"

I could see Stefan was shocked by my latest tongue lashing but I hope I got through to him and he understood what I was saying... he seemed to think on it for a few minutes but eventually shot down the idea,

"and how am I supposed to save anyone when I can't even make it through a pageant. One scraped knee and I'd be the one killing those I'd planned on saving. No it safest for everyone to put me down." He told me defeated.

I didn't know what to say to that but then Elena came up and asked to speak to Stefan alone, I could tell he didn't want her there but the look in her eye told me she knew what she was doing so I left them to it,

Downstairs Damon and I heard the end of their conversation and I was happy Elena relived me of my duty, it had to be tough for her to do that (inject him with vervain) she obviously cares for Stefan a great deal.

After we hear Stefan collapse from the vervain dart Damon and I re enter the room,

"Sure you want to do this?" I felt the need to ask her again.

"I'm sure." She tells me,

After putting him in the cell in the basement Damon turns to Elena, "There's no guarantee it's going to work."

"It has to." Elena says, she decided to stay down there with Stefan, waiting for him to regain consciousness. Damon and I went up to bed, Even tho the sun had set and I was finally free I didn't want to be anywhere else but in bed snuggled up to me husband.

Damon's Bedroom- Damon's POV:

I lay in bed holding my wife. Caring is exhausting, don't know how Stefan has done it all these years. A part of me thinks I should take Clara and get as far away from here as possible... but honestly I like the idea of being a family again with Stefan not that I'd ever admit that.

"Its okay to admit you know." I hear Clara say... is she in my head?

"Admit what?" I ask as I stroke my hand up and down her back.

"That you care for your bother." She says, yup she's in my head, if I hadn't seen her fangs for myself i'd swear she was a witch.

"I thought you almost got through to him back there. It was a good try..." I tell her, "You know Stefan actually did play the hero once went off to war and everything."

"Really?" She asks interested,

"Yup, It was World War II mid 1930s."

"I am still only on the 20s so no spoilers." she warns,

"Well it was pretty much all down hill from there sweetheart." I tell her,

"What happened, did it help when Stefan went, did you go with him?" She asks

I think back to me and Stefan in that bar, "I was supposed to but his bff, that means best friend forever, talked me out of it. She told me he'd be better off alone than in my company." I tell her thinking back to the train station,

"Is this the one you killed in front of him on his birthday?" She asks surprising me,

"He told you about that?" I ask

"Just mentioned it really." great, what she must think of me,

"Yeah, it was her." I tell her,

"A little bit glad she's dead now, stuck up cow saying that to you." That surprised me, I smiled. I loved how blindly Clara would defend me, I leaned over and kissed her on her forehead.

"I shouldn't have killed her. Its one of the few things I am actually sorry for. I have done so many terrible things and yet I rarely feel guilty about any of them, but that's one I do." I admit,

Clara tilts her head looking up to me with those gorgeous eyes of hers, "You should tell him, I'am sure it would mean a lot."

"I'am not so sure." I tell her,

"Any more trouble from Jonathan Gilbert?" She asks sensing I could use a change of topic,

"Pretty sure he knows now never to threaten you again." I tell her holding her closer,

"But what if he turns you into the council." She asks, she must be worried, and I hate John all the more for spooking her,

I can see how worried Clara is for me, and I am worried too if I'm honest with myself. The part of me that thinks he should take Clara and disappear is getting louder. But that's out of the question until Stefan's back on the straight and narrow at least and who knows how long that will take.

"You know the 3rd worse thing that ever happened to me was?" I decide to tell her something I've never told anyone,

"No, what?"

I tell Clara about the Augustine society never getting too graphic but not lying or sugarcoating anything for her either.

"But I know nothing like that will ever happen again, you know why?" I say

"Why?" Clara asks tears spilling down her face completely distraught over what I've told her.

"Because if I was even missing for an hour I know you would come find me. So no I am not worried about John and the council, because I have the most kick ass wife in the world and I know she'll do anything to protect me just like I will her. We'll always be okay because we have each other... alright?" Clara nods believing me.

"I wouldn't just come looking, I would rain down hell until I found you." she tells me making me smile.

"I know you would." I tell her,

"Wait, you said that was the third worst thing what were the first two? I can't imagine anything worse." She says and I take a deep breath deciding to be honest,

"First was waking up a vampire realizing how Katherine manipulated me into leaving you, realizing I'd be spending eternity without you after Stefan forced me to feed."

Clara strokes the side of my face making me feel loved and safe,

"And what about the 2nd?" She asks

"Mother dying leaving me and Stefan alone with Giuseppe."

3rd Person POV:

Clara held tightly onto Damon and wished nothing worse than those three would ever happen to him but Unfortunately Clara didn't know how soon her husband's life would be threatened once Johnathan Gilbert got his hands on that invention Pearl told them about.

Clara falls asleep safely in her husbands arms.

Clara was awoken from her slumber the next morning by music blaring. She peeked up from the covers, to see Damon waiting for her. He was dressed in a tux and was holding a slinky silk dress.

"What's going on?" She asked

"Decided to make your studies more fun, welcome to the twenties. Now get dressed." Damon ordered.

Clara sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes,

"What about your brother?" She asks,

"He's brooding downstairs refusing to drink." Damon says acting like he's not concerned,

"So shouldn't we be focused on helping him."

"We helped Elena subdue him and lock him up, the rest will be up to him. Now come on... or do you not want to learn to do the charleston?" Damon asks

Clara still felt guilty having fun when Stefan was downstairs having a terrible time but seeing Damon dressed up and ready to dance with her had her cave rather quickly.

Elena POV:

I was sitting outside Stefan's cell when I heard music and laughing coming from upstairs.

"What are they doing up there?" I asked out loud.

"Damon is teaching her dances from the twenties... they're having fun." Stefan tells me making me a little angry on his behalf

"Ugh I'am going to go tell them to shut it off."

"Don't" He stops me,

"Stefan, your down here in pain and they are throwing a party it isn't right."

"They're in love and they are enjoying themselves, that's not wrong." He says defending them,

"Well, do they have to do it so loud?"

"I'am sorry... that it can't be us." He tells me sadly

"One day it can be." I try to convince him, and a little bit myself,

"No, I don't think I've ever been so carefree."

"What about with Lexi at a Bon Jovi concert." I remind him and I see through the bars Stefan is smiling at the memory.

"Maybe then." he admits,

"Lexi wouldn't want you to just give up, she would want you to fight... I want you to fight." I tell him, hating seeing him like this,

"I am sorry, I shouldn't have pursued you... this should be your life. Waiting outside a cell door for you boyfriend to decide to live. You deserve better, you deserve to be woken up to a dance party." He says looking up at the ceiling where Damon and Clara are enjoying themselves above us.

"I don't want to be them, I want to be us... but I need you to want that too."

"You should get going, you're going to be late for school." He says ignoring my pleas.

"I'll be back later, and I expect that bottle to be empty." I tell him trying to sound firm.

3rd Person POV:

Stefan refuses to drink and is staring to hallucinate from lack of blood

It leads to a flashback, Stefan awakes with a start now by the Quarry in 1864. He opens his shirt and sees the bullet wound is gone. He also sees a ring on his hand and examines it. Emily is there.

"Katherine had me make that for you weeks ago." Emily is explaining to Stefan

"Where am I?" He asks,

"The quarry just north of town. My brother and I brought you here last night. We found you dead in the woods." Emily explains.

"Where's Damon? Am I...am I a...?" Stefan asks too afraid to even say the words,

Emily shakes her head no, "Not yet. You're in transition."

"But how? I..."

"You had Katherine's blood in your system when you died." She explains,

"No. I never..." He starts to say,

"She's been compelling you to drink it for weeks, Stefan." Things are starting to come back to him,

"And Damon?" He asks,

"He was even less willing than you, practically turned his brain to mush the amount of times she had to compel him... it made her furious."

Damon starts waking up and Stefan joins him by the water

"I woke up last night. I didn't know where I was. I went to the church. And I watched them drag her inside. Then they set fire to it. And the whole church went up into flames. They killed her, Stefan. She's gone... It should have been me." Stefan always thought Damon meant he wished he had died in her place but looking back now it's clear he meant, he wished he'd been the one to kill her when he thought Katherine was dead. He wasn't sad or in mourning... he was angry. It was easier for Stefan to see now looking back.